Call of Duty: MW3 Will Break Entertainment Sales Record Again With $1.1 Billion in First 6 Weeks, says PachterCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is all set to launch next week (Nov. 8) and the industry as a whole is eagerly anticipating the economic lift it should provide. But can Activision Blizzard manage to top last year's sales numbers for Black Ops and break entertainment sales records for the third consecutive year with Call of Duty? Yes, says Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will likely be the year’s top-selling game. If MW3 receives strong review scores (≈ 85 or above on Metacritic.com), it should at least match predecessor Black Ops’ sales (over 25 million units) due to the network effect, with compression of sales into 2011 likely," he stated in an investor note.
When further queried by IndustryGamers specifically about whether the game can set the new entertainment record, he answered, "I do. I see compression of sales for virtually every game, would bet that they are 10% higher over the same time frame, so $1.1 billion in the first six weeks."
It took about six weeks for Black Ops to reach the magical $1 billion sales mark last year. We'll be watching the first week of sales closely, as last year Black Ops generated $650 million in just five days. Modern Warfare 2 the year before that had accounted for $550 million in five days.
Pachter is also bullish on the effect of Activision's new social service, Call of Duty: Elite. "We expect the Call of Duty: Elite premium membership plan to be very popular with CoD’s hard core gamers. Elite is being bundled at a $10 discount with the underlying game, which may accelerate as many as 3 – 4 million subscriptions into 2011," he said.
